"Villavende’s tragedy highlights the disheartening plight of overseas Filipino workers who bear separation from their families to seek greener pastures abroad."
"Villavende’s tragedy highlights the disheartening plight of overseas Filipino workers who bear separation from their families to seek greener pastures abroad."
The government must impose a ban on labor deployment to Kuwait following the brutal killing of yet another Filipino housemaid by her employer in the Gulf state.
I support Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on the Department of Labor’s recommendation on implementing a partial ban subject to the approval of the board of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.
Bello, who chairs the POEA board, said the proposed ban would cover only new migrants who would work as domestic help in Kuwait and will not affect skilled and vacationing workers.
If imposed, such a moratorium of new DH recruits should send a strong message to Kuwaiti authorities, and may be upgraded to total deployment ban if justice for the latest victim, Jeanalyn Villavende, is not obtained.
According to a preliminary report submitted by Labor Attache Nasser Mustafa, 26-year-old Villavende was beaten to death and was already dead when taken to a hospital. Hospital personnel described her body as “black and blue.”
We are appalled by this tragedy, as voiced out by Malacañang, prompting the ban on the deployment of workers to Kuwait.
President Duterte is outraged as we all are by this violation of the agreement between the two countries for the protection of Filipino workers there.
The previous ban stemmed from the 2018 murder of Filipino housemaid Joanna Demafelis, whose body was found in a freezer in an apartment abandoned by her Arab employers in Kuwait City.
Demafelis’ employers fled Kuwait, but were arrested in Syria and sentenced to death. We expect a punishment at least as severe as this for Villavende’s death. Villavende is believed to have been killed on Dec. 30, but the exact date of her death will be known only after the autopsy. Her killer employer is detained in Kuwait.
We demand protection for more than 264,000 Filipinos are working in Kuwait, more than 50 percent of them as maids. We must ensure their safety; the Kuwaiti authorities must guarantee the same.
Presidential Spokesman Sal Panelo said a complete ban on labor deployment to Kuwait would depend on POEA’s recommendation, and would potentially strain diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Kuwait.
Villavende’s tragedy highlights yet again the disheartening plight of overseas Filipino workers who bear separation from their families to seek greener pastures abroad.
The labor authorities must impose severe sanctions on the local placement agency that had sent Villavende to Kuwait, including cancellation of its license for failing to act on the victim’s plea for repatriation months earlier.
Villavende sought the agency’s assistance as early as September, complaining about maltreatment and underpayment of salary but the recruiter did not do anything, according to Bello. “On December 13, the family again called Jeanalyn, but her female employer was the one who answered the call and said that the maid was busy,” he said.
This is outrageous, since recruitment agencies have a responsibility to monitor the welfare of the workers they deploy to other countries. They should check on their condition periodically. They must be made answerable for any labor violation committed by the principal employer since such agencies essentially represent the latter.
